FIAR-Madeline

I signed up a few months ago to do an activity and file folder Five In A Row Swap. As with most swaps, they always sound great, but I always wait until the last minute to complete 10 bags.

I chose the book Madeline, by Ludwig Bemelmams.

Below are the activities that I made for our swap.  I know it will be a big help receiving nine other book activities to use during the year.

Trace the Eiffel Tower for younger kids.

Madeline Match

Learn to draw the Eiffel Tower and fun facts.

Play dough mat

Madeline search and find

Homemade French Bread

I would love to hear what you've been rowing.

Echo In Celebration- FREE

Did you know you can download a free copy of Leigh Bortin’s book, Echo in Celebration? Visit LeighBortins.com for your free copy.  The free download is located on the right hand side of her blog.  It's a lovely book on how to encourage the life long learners and it's a simply read.

Mommy's Having a Baby- TMI

We have enjoyed selecting books on the topic of being a big sister and mommy's having a baby from the library, but this book is "OVER THE TOP."

My Mom's Having a Baby, By: Dori Hillestad Butler

Jem picked this one right off the library shelf and it looked so innocent with cute cartoon illustrations. Then you read the second paragraph on page five where the man shoots a "white liquid" into the woman's vagina.  I have a 6 and just turned 4 year old and luckily I was able to flip the page with out any notice!  My husband and my friends could not believe it either.  Olive knows that the baby will come out of my uterus,  I even mention sperm and egg,  but for now they are happy knowing that the baby pops out of my belly.

Great Spring Books

A few weeks ago Olive finished her 100 Easy Lessons book and was so excited!  During the year we mixed it up with Bob books, Dr. Suess, and Hooked on Phonics.  I feel she now has a good grasp on reading and is gaining more confidence with each book we read.  As a reward she can pick out a dress for her American Girl Doll.  I am so proud of her!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The girls loved Strega Nona's Harvest by Tomie dePaola, it went along nicely with planting our small garden.

 Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present, By Charlotte Zolotow is a lovely book that teaches colors in a special way. 

 I loved the illustrations in Cinderlily, By David Ellwand.  This twisted fairy-tail has an adorable rhythm with lovely photos.

What are you and your children reading this month?

Pookster and Bubs Review and Giveaway!

I was lucky enough to review these two lovely books for children by Rhonda Funk.  Pookster and the Unloose Tooth and Pookster and the Practically Perfect Pickle, teach valuable lessons on using kind words and patience.

I love that they are written by a christian mother and the audio book is handy in the car.  My girls laughed while I read the book, but they could also pick out the important lesson the story told.  The illustration are delightful and the each book ends with a Bible verse.

This book series is a creative way to teach your children about the fruits of the Spirit.  To learn more about this new series check out their website here.

Two lucky followers can win one of The Adventures of Pookster and Bubs!   Just leave a comment below and a way for me to contact you.  You can win extra entries by liking Sippy Cup Central and Pookster And Bubs on Facebook. The giveaway ends on the 12th....good-luck!

Six Great Chapter Books

My six year old daughter loves for me to read chapter books to her before bed. We read a chapter or two a night and she always begs for more.  Head on over the The Homeschool Classroom to read about these amazing books.

Little One Books Winner

  Thank-you to everyone who participated in the Little One Books giveaway!

Congrats to Amanda over at Mommy of Two Little Monkeys
She said...
I would love to get a few of their books such as the Bear feels Sick and the little engine that could :) Cute books on their site! Thanks for the giveaway :)

Stay tuned for more giveaways in the near future!

Hot Air Balloon Lapbook

We made a hot air balloon lapbook to go along with the book, The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride, by Majorie Priceman. Little One Books sent us the book and is also giving a $25 gift card to one of my readers, just click here and enter to win on my blog.

Homemade Hot Air Balloon:
We used a plastic bag and cut it almost in half, then stitch around the outside, and used a piece of egg carton for the basket. The basket has four pieces of thread, the same length stitched from the basket to the balloon.
We then placed a hair dryer in the balloon opening and turned it on...up it went, but it was hard to take a picture of it. The girls learned that hot air makes the balloon rise. You can find a good tutorial over at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman. Using a candle would be a better representation of how a hot air balloon works, but the hair dryer got the point across.

The first hot air balloon was invented by the Montgolfier brothers in France. It was first thought that smoke was the force that lifted the balloon, but years later  it was discovered that hot air rises because it weighs less than cool air.

It may not be true, but the story goes that the first riders in the hot air balloon were a rooster, duck, and sheep. We learned counting by 3's.

Some new words from the book included: splendid, ambassador, amateur, aeronaut, and slender.

This sticker B was made by Jem for balloon.

The front of the lapbook: We learned the points on a compass and colored the first balloon design.

Inside: Pictures of who watched the launch, sequence cards on the stages of launching a hot air balloon,  new words, and a map of France.

I found great resources for the book and hot air balloons over at Homeschool Share.
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Olivia Goes To Venice- SINKS!

We are big fans of the five previous Olivia books by Ian Falconer. We read them over and over again, but Falconer's new book, Olivia Goes to Venice, is one that sinks into the Grand Canal.

The part in question reads,"As they went through the airport, Olivia was searched for weapons. She was very pleased." The illustration is of two security pigs wanding Olivia with her parents looking from behind.

My girls are well-traveled children. We use to live on the West coast, while the rest of the family lived back East. When we would go through security check points I would remind them that we didn't always have to take our shoes off and it's not OK to have your rights taken away (but that's another topic all together).

I really wanted to like this book. The illustrations were lovely, we laughed when they ate a ton of gelato, and we enjoyed the trip through Venice. There is just something about the wording and illustrations on the third page that bothers me enough not to keep it in our library. The child pig, Olivia, being wanded for weapons is not cute or funny in my world!

Thanksgiving Book Suggestions

One Is A Feast For Mouse
By: Judy Cox This cute mouse gets greedy after everyone leaves the dinner table, but learns that a little can sometimes be a lot. 
Activities: balancing objects, counting, discuss sharing, how to set a table.

 Turkey Trouble
By: Wendi Silvano
It's Thanksgiving Day and turkey knows he's in trouble. He offers creative suggestions to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
Activities: Discuss other countries that celebrate Thanksgiving and their food traditions, puppets, make disguises.

P is for Pilgrim
By: Helle Urban
This is a wonderful book for an older child.  It walks you through the alphabet with interesting Thanksgiving facts from A to Z.
Activities: Map pilgrims route, geography, growing crops, Indian tribes near you.

Vocab Builders

Here are four Halloween books that we enjoyed this weekend.

Corduroy's Trick or Treat, Haunted House, Boo Who?, and Happy Halloween- Picture Me.

We worked on making words with letters t, a, p, s, n.  I drew three rectangles for Olive to place the letters.

 To help build on the story words that we are learning with Wordly Wise K, Olive matched the vocab words with the pictures.  I also had her point to the word I said and then pick the correct photo.

We are currently reading Little House in the Big Woods, by Wilder. When we come to a word that she questions, we write it down on an index card, and add it to our "word box." We review these words weekly by learning definitions and using them in a sentence.

It's Pumpkin Time!

It's my favorite time of year around here! We made pumpkin playdough and used little twigs and evergreen to decorate our little balls of fun. You can find the recipe here from an earlier post. We added orange food coloring, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

I found a good lesson plan on pumpkin life cycles over at Montessori Mom that went along nicely with our book.

 We read The Pumpkin Book, an educational story about the life cycle and origins of pumpkins, by Gail Gibbons.  You can also find a fun paper plate life cycle activity at My Montessori Journey.

It's also nice when you can find a garden or pumpkin patch where the pumpkins are still attached to the vine to get the full effect of the cycle.
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Reposted from 2010

Katy No-Pocket- Before Five In A Row

Katy No-Pocket is an adorable story about a mama kangaroo who is in need of a pocket to carry her baby. This book is illustrated by H.A. Rey, who is famous for Curious George, and written by Emmy Payne.

We worked on letter K and added picture of like kite, kangaroo, and kettle to the K pocket.

A cute little finger play.

We matched animals with their homes.

We learned about animal families. A female Kangaroo is a boomer, a male- flyer, and a baby- joey.

What lives in a tree? We also used aprons to carry our baby animals around the house.
You can find cute lapbook ideas for Katy No-Pocket at homeschool share and Christian homeschool hub.
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